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A return to club football and another very busy period prior to the next international break. In the news this week, FIFpro (the global players' union) and the European Leagues (representing 39 leagues in 33 countries) have brought about a lawsuit against FIFA, arguing that the governing body has prioritised its own events in order to monetise them, while also threatening players and teams who try to pull out. Too many games in the calendar means very little chance for players and coaches to re-energise, and many more games where no-one is at their optimum. While I agree that players are playing too many games these days (it's a much higher level of intensity and there is usually more at stake compared to say the 70s and 80s when some players were also playing a lot of games), it also feels like we've barely played any league games. 7 games out of 38, and we're in mid-October. We welcome the lunatic asylum to Anfield. I think they have more points and goals than signings this time round, but it's hard to tell. It's also hard to tell whether they've return to the median or whether they are outperforming their stats. Under Poch, they did seem to create a lot of chances without converting them. Under their latest head coach Maresca, they have been creating a lot of chances but also converting a lot of them. They've also been quite open in midfield and defence. Their summer transfer activity consisted of trying to force out a lot of their home-grown players to book the whole transfer fee while signing new players on the never-never and only having to book the amortisation for PSR purposes. They also sold the hotel to themselves and tried to sell the women's team to themselves too. The PL and UEFA have actually been wise to the ruse on the whole. Amongst the incomings are Neto from Wolves (injury-prone but dangerous), Felix from Atletico (still yet to show he's the new Kaka), National Trust Estate from Leicester (part of the PSR fiddle than a player they actually needed), plus Sancho on loan from the Mancs (again a player they didn't actually need). Palmer has been their breakout player since the previous summer, far and away their best signing. Cucurella and Fofana both picked up their fifth yellows of the season so miss out through suspension, and they are checking on the fitness of Madueke, Colwill and Chukwuemeka. No idea on the rest. For us, Ali will be missing for the next month at least so we will have Queef between the sticks. He has proved to be more than a capable deputy over the years, and it's understandable that he wants to be a number one. Ali is the clear number one but he's also very injury prone hence why we did the deal for Mamardashvili. We also have Jaros as back-up, who if he was a regular at club level would likely be first choice for his country too. Macca played against Bolivia so his little knock prior to the international break may well have cleared. Mo and Virg got to put their feet up this week, and Curtis returned early from international duty due to the birth of his daughter. The other internationals got a fair bit of game time and chipped in with a fair few goals to boot. That means that as I write, Ali and Harvey are the only absentees. Not heard any updates on Fede's situation. Slot will want to avoid the shitshow against Forest that was the aftermath of our last return to domestic action after an international break. We'll of course need to be wary of Chelsea's attacking threat but we have enough to hurt them like we did last season. It needs the right level of control and intensity, and the substitutions need to have more impact in terms of being effective and not hampering the set-up and putting us needlessly under the cosh. How have our previous managers got on in their first home fixture against Chelsea? It's pretty good on the whole. Souness...05/09/1992...Liverpool 2-1 Chelsea (Saunders, Redknapp) Evans...19/03/1994...Liverpool 2-1 Chelsea (Rush, Burley og) Houllier...16/10/1999...Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea (Thompson) Benitez...01/01/2005...Liverpool 0-1 Chelsea Hodgson...17/11/2010...Liverpool 2-0 Chelsea (Torres 2) Dalglish...08/05/2012...Liverpool 4-1 Chelsea (Essien og, Henderson, Agger, Shelvey) Rodgers...21/04/2013...Liverpool 2-2 Chelsea (Sturridge, Suarez) Klopp...11/05/2016...Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea (Benteke) I don't ask for much. Maximum motivation, control, application, attitude and concentration from minute one. 3 points please. Get it done!